Even if it brings nothing new to the series, Abyss is the best, and longest game from the Tales series I have played.
I have been messing around with "Tales Of Destiny" 1&2 just before this game, and I have to say, this sure is the best game I have played in the "Tales"series, and as everyone out there agrees, the longest. Fitting of a PS2 closure for the series. Namco uses the old formula, so this game is not any different from any other of the series. It seems when they make a sucessful gameplay, they stick with it. It contains a lot of vibrant characters, that will often, here and there pull out some really funny scenes. Graphics is very "sharp" and satisfying of a PS2 game, soundtrack is a little weaker in technical terms, but there are some nice tunes.
Story is based around this mist called "Miasma" and our intentions to get rid of it , but we are not having an easy time with it, because in the meanwhie, the enitre Earth (outer lands) are falling into Abyss (some kind of misty lower world), plus there are some "God Generals" here who you know very well and they will try to stop you because they want the world to be reborned (destroyed) in order to get rid of the "Score" (some kind of future predicting instrument).
Mostly it is gonna be an enjoyable journey, with some sidequests too, first time in the Tales series, we really have something that can be called a sidequest. Players wont be dissapointed, looking at the development of the story, completing this game is gonna be like reading a book ! Must play for Tales fans, but I'm not and was satisfied.